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Whenever we visit Turkey we end up doing the same things and going to the same places, so this year we fancied a bit of a change and did a few days exploring. After spending a day in Denizli and the village, we left in the early afternoon and drove a couple of hours to Akyaka.

The road down to Akyaka is very winding and bendy, and has a place you can pull over and take photos of the view – we stopped there when we were passing by last September and it looked really pretty so that’s what made us chose there to visit!

By the time we arrived it was late afternoon and we were really tired, hot and bothered so we found our hotel and freshened up before going out for dinner.

We went to the first restaurant we came across, which was more of a lokanta, selling traditional Turkish dishes which are cooked in bulk and then you can chose which you want. There were a lot of those type of small restaurants around, advertising home cooked food – Berkay chose it expecting it to be cheap, but it wasn’t really! He had Etli Nohut (beef and chickpea stew) and rice, and I had Karniyarik (aubergine stuffed with mince) and rice. We also had künefe to share for dessert, yummy!

After dinner we went for a walk, totally clueless about where we were actually going or where anything was! We came across a river and walked across the bridge to the other side and followed the little marina around and then walked back again. I’d heard about the boat trips down the river Azmak and when we were crossing the bridge we saw one returning so we went to ask about it and ended up on one 2 minutes later! I will write another post about that as I have lots of photos to share.

When we got back from the 20 minute boat ride, the sun was close to setting so we followed the path from the river towards the main marina where the big boats were docked. Whilst walking along the promenade we came across lots of little stalls selling handmade goods and souvenirs like jewellery, painted pebbles, dream-catchers, fridge magnets etc – they were really pretty. We also came across a ‘phone box’ in the shape of a seagull, which I just had to get a photo with, I loved its quirkiness!

All the wandering around we had done and we hadn’t yet found the beach… until we turned the corner and finally reached it, just in time for sunset. It was really beautiful small beach, the shallow waves lapping on the sand, the red glow on the horizon and the mountains framing the view perfectly.

The beach in Turkey wouldn’t be the beach without some street food vendors selling Midye (stuffed mussels) and salted corn on the cob, so we just had to get some before heading back to our room for the night.

The next morning we went for a early morning walk before breakfast, we went straight to the beach and saw it in all it’s glory – blue sky, palm trees, calm sea and crystal clear water. The best thing about the beach is the fact the sea is so shallow, you can walk really far out and it only be up to your knees, perfect for children paddling. The water was so clear you could see the pattern of the sand on the floor, and little fish swimming around. I wish we had a little more time to spend there, so we could have swam properly!

After our walk we went back to our hotel’s restaurant for breakfast (it was a separate building a few feet down the road, owned by the same people). There was a bit of an issue getting it, since the staff didn’t turn up to open it until after 10.15am, and that was only because we asked someone to ring them and wake them up! But when we finally did get it it was a nice, traditional Turkish breakfast with eggs, honey, jam, tomato, cucumber, cheeses, olives and bread.

We stayed in the Ala Butik Hotel, a small boutique hotel. It didn’t have a pool but the rooms were lovely, modern and clean and it was in a perfect location a few minutes walk away from the marina, but honestly the staff weren’t very friendly or helpful at all (even before the breakfast incident!) I don’t think either of the receptionists smiled once which made us feel more of a nuisance to them than a welcome guest!

Something we loved about Akyaka was the fact that the houses, hotels and buildings were all the same design, white buildings with carved brown wooden roofs, windows and balconies – they looked really impressive and pretty.

Unfortunately, like most places, too much tourism is having an impact on Akyaka. In the 1970’s it was a small fishing village, but it’s becoming more popular and struggling since it’s not built for so many people. Before we went, I was warned to avoid it on a Sunday, since that’s the day when a lot of Turkish people have their day off and flock to the beach for a free day out, often leaving lots of rubbish behind. We arrived on the Sunday afternoon and it was really, really busy, with cars everywhere, parked in really random places, leaving us struggling to find a spot anywhere near our hotel. The streets are fairly narrow too, with lots of the restaurants and bars having tables and chairs along the paths, leaving us no choice but to walk in the road and having to dodge cars here there and everywhere! Thankfully, by Monday the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed with a lot less people and it was much more enjoyable, so I would stick to the advice one of my blog readers gave me and definitely avoid Akyaka on a Sunday! We also noticed the restaurants and shops were more expensive there, I think they rely a lot on organised tours and day trippers for their income, so raise the prices a bit to reflect that.

I definitely want to visit Akyaka again as we loved it, especially Berkay, he loved it so much he looked to see how much it would cost to buy land there, unfortunately for him it was in the millions of lira! It’s definitely worth a visit, especially for the beach and the boat trip down the river, I’ll share some photos of that in my next post.

If you’re looking to visit Akyaka yourself, it’s around 2 hours drive from Fethiye, or 30 minutes from Marmaris and the Mugla city centre.

A few days ago we hired a car and went off exploring once again – this time following the D400 road that stretches the length of the southern coast of Turkey, to Kalkan, Kaputaş and Kaş.
I’ve been to Kalkan before on holiday long before I met Berkay and we’d been for a day trip together, but never driven, and driving is definitely all part of the fun because the views from the road are stunning.

It took just over an hour to reach Kalkan, we pulled over at the side of the mountain side road overlooking the bay to admire the view, honestly photographs do not do it justice, it’s breathtaking – I bet watching the sunset would be beautiful from there.

We then drove down to Kalkan in the hope of getting some lunch. It was only 11.30am, so we went for a walk around town first. It really is pretty – lots of little backstreets, boutique shops and restaurants with rooftop terraces overlooking the sea. The only problem is it is a town on a mountain side, so walking down to the sea and harbour area means walking down very steep and very slippery stones and pavements. When we got to the bottom we headed towards the town’s tiny beach, although we didn’t actually go for a swim it did look very inviting. The whole of Kalkan is sheltered from wind as it’s a bay, which means the water is clear, calm and very beautiful.

We walked along past the VERY expensive restaurants over looking the harbour (31-39tl for a pizza!) and to the otherside, along the breakwater towards the lighthouse. There were people doing watersports, swimming and snorkelling on the sea side, and on the harbour side although all the boats were out on their day trips and it looked very empty, the view of the town going up the mountain side was lovely.

Kalkan is a much classier, upmarket resort than others. There are no cheap hotels, you won’t find a ’50p English breakfast’ and there aren’t many loud bars. There are very few hotels at all, the town consists mainly of apartments and villas with sea views. The atmosphere is very different to other resorts I’ve been to, it’s a quaint town perfect for couples, it’s definitely not a party place, nor is there much entertainment for small children. There are many small restaurants with rooftop terraces overlooking the sea, perfect for sitting and watching the sunset over dinner with a glass of wine or two! The beautiful views and more upmarket feel comes at a price, everything is more expensive here. We looked at a few menus and found prices were significantly more expensive than we’re used to, I joked that if we lived here, we’d be stick thin as we’d never be able to afford to eat and the steep uphill roads would be brilliant exercise!

When it was time to head back up to the car, which was parked at the top of a very steep hill, we definitely chose the wrong way up. Instead of choosing the shady, steep but relatively easy walk up through the backstreets the way we came, we walked up a big, ridiculously steep road next to ‘Foto’s Pizza’. I wish I’d taken a photo of how steep it was… we underestimated it, and the midday sun along with the fact we had no water with us and had not eaten a single thing all morning made it so much harder, we suddenly realised how unfit we are!

We stopped at a little Migros on the way out of the town, as we decided it was too expensive to eat anything in Kalkan and we were starving! Refreshed and fed with mini chocolate croissants, we blasted out the aircon in the car and drove back to the main road high up in the mountain side heading towards Kaş. This stretch of road is beautiful but a little scary! The views are stunning, blue sea, islands in the distance, waves crashing on the rocks below… We drove for around 20 minutes and then saw the sign for Kaputaş beach. I’ve been a few times before but never seen it so busy, there were so many cars parked on the edge of the road that it was difficult to pass through, we had to park a good few minutes walk away from the entrance as there were just too many cars!

I guess Kaputaş is very popular with local people, rather than tourists. It’s kind of a hidden gem, at the bottom of a mountain gorge. When we parked up we climbed over the crash barriers on the mountain edge and admired the view, the sea is SO blue, these photos are an accurate representation of just how turquoise the water is.

The only way to access the beach is either by boat or by walking down ALOT of steps – in fact Berkay counted 191 in total. Going down the steps isn’t so bad – climbing back up nearly 200 steps to back to your car afterwards is the hard part! When you’re at the bottom you can see the bridge that joins the mountain side together, with Kaputaş canyon behind. I believe you can access the canyon by walking towards the back of the beach, but we’ve never tried.

I’m not sure if we picked a particularly busy day, but the beach was full! I could understand if it were a Sunday when lots of locals have the day off, but it was only Friday! The beach is free, but there’s not many facilities. There was an old man at the top of the steps selling fruit, and a stall at the bottom where they were selling traditional Turkish pancakes – I’m not sure if this is a new thing as I’d never noticed it before. There were also umbrellas and sun-cushions to rent, but no sunbeds. There were 4 small cubicles to change clothes in, and a hose pipe on the floor behind some bushes which people seemed to be using as a shower. There were also 2 toilet cubicles (which I didn’t even notice until we were back at the top of the steps looking down) but I’m puzzled at how anyone is supposed to access them as they were higher up on some rocks, blocked off by bushes, plants, pipes and more rocks… quite comical really!

We went for a swim in the sea, but it was very wavy as it’s not sheltered at all – just open water. We could hear people screaming everytime a large wave approached, and they were pretty powerful too, definitely not a place for non-confident swimmers to float and relax. It was beautiful nonetheless, the clean turquoise water is much nicer than the murky looking water here in Calis.

We stayed at the beach for around an hour then got back in the car and carried on driving to Kaş. Neither of us had ever been there before so we didn’t really know what to expect to where to go! We ended up parking in the main town which reminded me a lot of Fethiye actually, just a smaller version. We found a cheap-ish (but still more expensive than good old Fethiye!) Turkish lokanta and got some lunch. Berkay had rice and beans and I had some kind of mixed dish with potatoes, green beans, tomatoes and aubergine all cooked together in a tomato sauce – it was lovely.

We didn’t do as much exploring as I hoped, we really didn’t know where we were going! We wandered to the small harbour area and down a few back streets where there were lots of small boutiques, jewellery shops and more traditional shops selling carpets and rugs. One shop name in particular stood out, ‘Kaş and carry’. (Kaş is pronounced ‘Kash’). When walking around different towns and cities in Turkey one thing I love to do is spot the statues of Ataturk – the founder of the Republic of Turkey as we know it. There are statues of him in every single town in the country, something I find really impressive. Can you imagine having a statue of the same person in every single town in the UK? You’ve got to love their pride. I love seeing Turkish flags flying high everywhere too.

Berkay was tired as he’d been working all night and hadn’t slept all day, and he’d had enough of walking around in the heat, so at around 3.30pm we got back in the car and started the journey back to Fethiye. The views from the road are just stunning, photos don’t do it justice at all. The gorgeous blue sea, the waves, the boats sailing, the view across to several islands, including the Greek Meis… The only part which is a little frustrating is getting stuck behind tractors or big trucks carrying concrete etc, especially when you’re driving up steep sections of mountain side road – I felt as if if we were going any slower we’d end up going backwards – literally!

We arrived back in Calis at around 5pm and after a quick stop at home to get BBQ supplies we jumped back in the car and drove to Fethiye. There are so many lovely bays around there to stop and have a swim and a picnic, but one of my favourites is Aksazlar Koyu – it’s not ideal for swimming as it’s relatively close to the dock yard and all the boats mean the water is not the cleanest, however, for BBQ picnics, it’s brilliant. Pine trees cover the whole area so it’s always shady, it’s often empty and there are picnic tables which means we can bypass the typical Turkish method of eating a BBQ – sitting on a rug on the floor. The only thing I’m not a fan of is the bees – lots appear when they sense the food, but luckily we were there later in the evening this time and as it started to cool down there were hardly any at all.
Apart from realising we’d forgotten the plates and Berkay having to speed off in the car to borrow some from a local shop while leaving me in charge of the BBQ (which meant everything took twice as long) we had a lovely time and a lovely dinner.

By the time we had finished it was nearly 8.30pm, the sun had gone down and it was getting dark. Berkay had arranged to go into work an hour later than normal at 9pm as he was owed some time, so we made the most of being together out of daylight hours and drove up to the ‘hill of the lovers’ (Asiklar Tepesi) to get a better look at Fethiye. I never see Fethiye at night, the last time I did was on my last night here last September before heading to the airport (how was that nearly a year ago?!) as Berkay is always working, so I’d forgotten how beautiful it looks. Once again, my photos don’t do it justice. We also took the scenic route home past the town centre fountains, I’d not seen them lit up since last September either, unfortunately I couldn’t get any photos as I only had a glimpse through the car window, but it was nice nonetheless!

As you can tell, we had another busy day. I’m so glad Berkay got his driving liscene so we’ve been able to hire cars and drive to places we’d never normally go to. Although it’s using money we don’t really have to spend, it’s worth it.